Josh Brown is an arrogant, unemployed, 25-year old who has yet to articulate an original thought, and doesn’t have enough real-life business experience to manage a self-service car wash much less administer the $307,314,431 corporation of Kitsap County and its 1268 employees.

Throughout the campaign, he has done nothing but parrot the local Democratic Party line spoon-fed to him by the elitists who run it with an iron fist — No NASCAR and no public funding for it. Brown actually had the audacity to publicly contradict the Governor’s head of the Office of Financial Management, Dr. Irv Lefberg, Ph.D, who confirmed there is none. He also wants to strengthen the already onerous Critical Areas Ordinance, make the county a wildlife corridor no matter whose property is impacted, and basically, not build anything anywhere — except for bike lanes.

The last time I checked PDC reports, Brown had a total of 96 contributions — 79 of which (82 percent) came from out of his district, while 67 percent of the total money he raised came from outside. Makes you wonder why people in his own district aren’t supporting him.

I believe electing Josh Brown will be the same as giving Chris Endresen two votes on every single issue because Brown is too inexperienced to be independent, or think for himself, and too egotistical to represent all his constituents equally.

Jack Hamilton on the other hand scares the hell out of even moderate to conservative Democrats — many who preferred Republican Patty Lent to Brown. Hamilton is proud to stand up for the conservative ideals he passionately believes in, and he isn’t the least bit intimidated by Chris Endresen. He also isn’t afraid to make those hard, uncompromising decisions Lent doesn’t have the stomach for — many that will displease liberal Democrats.

The Democrats will pull out all the stops to defeat Hamilton because he is a strong property rights advocate who believes the county has swung too far left where environmental regulations are concerned. It goes without say that we need environmental protections. It’s the trepidation that Hamilton will try to repeal the common sense regulations that scares people — and the Democrats will leverage that fear.

Hamilton is knowledgeable, logical and much more approachable and compromising than the Democrats give him credit for — or want you to believe. However, asking if property rights politics and his own core beliefs will win out over doing the right thing environmentally is a valid question. It’s up to Hamilton to prove they won’t.

Frankly, both parties should be embarrassed they couldn’t field any better quality candidates than we’re now stuck with. Although the county is made up of primarily centrists, we get to choose between the radical activist fringes Brown and Hamilton each represent because their respective parties are controlled by extremists to whom ideological purity is more important than pragmatism.

Local Democrats march to the drum of a shrill, vocal, and uncompromising, radical environmentalist agenda personified by Beth Wilson, Tom Donnelly, Gene Bullock, et. al. Centrist Democrats who challenge the greenies don’t stand a chance of even being heard — much less getting to run for office.

Republicans on the other hand have to swear allegiance to an ultra-conservative version of God, George Bush, country, unrestricted property rights, and also please Lois McMahan and her minions, while promising to oppose a woman’s right to choose, before they can be “blessed” to run.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Since they are outnumbered — especially in North Kitsap — the Republicans have the most to gain by taking control of their party back from the ultra-conservatives and religious right. There are literally thousands of moderate and conservative Democrats who could possibly be convinced to switch if the party moved back towards the center. The question is, will anyone actually step up and do anything to make that happen?

I was only mildly surprised Jack Hamilton upset Patty Lent. I have to wonder if many hardcore Democrats voted Republican believing Hamilton would be easier to defeat than Lent, but there’s no question there was a backlash over her Critical Areas Ordinance vote. To many Republicans, it was the ultimate betrayal. I believe she and her supporters seriously underestimated the level of grassroots anger over the CAO. Also, I’m not certain Lent ever understood exactly what that vote meant in terms of damage that will never be undone.

Either way, I believed it would be very close, but Lent would prevail. The Democrats could live with Lent since she votes with Chris Endresen more often than Jan Angel. But in the end it was her own Republicans who couldn’t.

Tim Sheldon proved that no matter how much money ideological purists pour into a carpetbagger’s campaign, in the end, representing the will of the people is what getting elected — and re-elected — is all about. It’s not about placating the party’s power structure when its agenda is contrary to the will of the voters of your district. I just hope Tumwater resident Kyle Taylor Lucas didn’t sign a long-term lease on that Shelton address she rented from Rep. Kathy Haigh just so she could run against Sheldon.

Finally, kudos to Attorney General Rob McKenna for challenging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on our “Top Two” primary, to the U.S. Supreme Court. The idea that almost 11 percent of our local ballots were invalidated because a party wasn’t indicated — even when it was absolutely clear what the intention of the voter was — is just flat wrong. Would those disenfranchised voters have made a difference in the outcome? I’d like to believe so.